Chapter 422 (2/2)
As Ellie finished firing the connecting arrows between two doors, Boo’s i tabs on the battle at the next platforood
Ellie transitioned froht and pure et after target We were on the sixth platfor constantly fro two or three at a ti constantly so as to try and protect her from every direction Her arrows picked off some just as they formed, but any who closed in on us, she left toar it at the elbow, then reversed direction and bit deep into the monster’s boney hip Withclaws of a four-ar up fro off into the void, where it vanished, reabsorbed by the darkness that birthed it
Vaulting over Ellie, I ca a headless creature fro atoff a skeletal, whip-like tail Focusing aether intocreature on the tip of the aether blade It’s body slid onto the blade effortlessly, and gnashi+ng jaws closed around my throat as claws raked across the black scales of e of aether fro the ar a line through one monster’s chest as I released the aetheric blast The second attacker vanished in a violet cone
Twenty
“Ellie, door!” I shouted
She conjured her arrohich I struggled to iht off our attackers Without her arrows picking therew even more difficult
Her first arrow sank into the corner of the door in front of us Her second went flying off into the void, airisly creatures,her
The distant arrow sank into the void, falling just short of the door she’d been ai arrow distractedblade It’s three clawed li her off her feet and carrying her out over the void
I ju for her
Her hand closed around rabbed her and were dragging her down Three s slaed over the edge with her In an instant, ere both pulled into the darkness, and then everything went cold and blank
I stepped out of the door onto the starting platfor out from her door with a defeated expression
‘Well, shi+t,’ Regis thought, sensing st ‘What do we do?’
Can you hold out long enough for us to get back? I sent,her The instant I did, Boo popped out of nowhere, nudging between Ellie and ht ‘Lyra’s already wounded, and we’re completely surrounded’
Only a few seconds passed before Lyra once again appeared in her door Wearily, I released her She sank to the ground and leaned her back against it, her eyes closed
Mica returned less than a minute later “What happened?” she asked as she s”
“IShe rubbed her hands down her face, then turned away, groaning and ot ed round with the armored toe of her boot “I really hate this place”
“What now?” Lyra asked, not bothering to open her eyes “We made it farther, but…”
“But I’m too slow,” Ellie said matter-of-factly “And Arthur has to split his attention”
“Take soested “Prepare yourselves mentally That’s the i to do, then?” Mica asked, raising a brow
“What I do best,” I said with a huis, I headed for Ellie’s door, taking it to the second platforh e within the darkness, I forced my mind clear of all my worries and fears, all considerations beyond this very instant and what I planned to do with it
When I arrived at the second platform, I moved to the center With my eyes closed, I pictured the second djinn projection, the woe of Real our battle The aether, responding to ht hand A moment later, a second blade consolidated in my left
It wasn’t strenuous to hold the had never beenthis fact helped le blade, been taught that my weapon was an extension of ealed out of the void, crawling onto the platfor with a mouth that took up most of its face Yellow eyes stared at me from its shoulders, and a whip-like tail snapped back and forth
I waited When it lunged, I took a step back, letting its claws pass right in front oflike shears, cleanly rerotesque head Theposition
Even now, the way I held a sword, the way I fought, was based on the principles I had learned as King Grey Kordri’s influence was there, too, in , in mastery over the micro-movements of my blade and body in concert But, really, I was still very much the same swordsman I had been in my previous life
Except I couldn’t be It was a lis What was it the djinn had said?
“It is not power you lack It is perspective Constraining yourself to a system that already exists around you only holds you back”
I was unknowingly locked into an out-of-datemy own abilities fully My abilities as a swordsnized the need to evolve past what I already knew
“You are trying to win, but you should be trying to learn”
Recalling how a third sword had appeared over her shoulder, then a fourth by her hip, I i around me Aether flowed froht flicker like sunbea my own distraction, I closed e
The aether was there, but I couldn’t shape it Thinking perhaps it was amy attention, I released the blades in s caainst the sh I could feel the aether infusing its body, I focused instead on the sound of air rushi+ng over the surface of its dark flesh when it attacked Eyes still closed, I caught one arm, then the other A third scraped across the scales of my armor With a swift turn, I lifted its e as its physical form was reabsorbed by the void
Minutes past in this state of flux I defended myself when necessary, otherwise focused entirely on the aether I treated it likeabout whether it worked as I embraced the effort itself
I kept track of the ti the monsters I slew as they crawled out one by one to attack Five became ten, became twenty, and then forty When I eventually lost count, I acknowledged the need for a break and took the doorway back to the others
Mica and Lyra, who had been watching me for the last thirty , h my attempts to limit my expectations and stay cal closer,” I assured theh I wasn’t entirely sure if that was true
The twang of a bowstring drew e of the platfor arrow after arrow Some she sent off into the void, directionless, while others she let dissipate Boo watched her attentively, occasionallynoises
She lanced in“I need to get faster,” she said si arrow streak through the darkness, I had an epiphany
“El,” I said, excite out ofinto a pouty frown “Huh?”
“I need you to trainto stand in front of her, I restedher body to face me directly “The tether you use to ”
Her brows furrowed and she looked at h The spellform just kind of…does it I don’t know—”
“But you do,” I insisted, a s across my face “The spellform may help you shape the mana, but it’s still your mana The way it feels, the shape it takes, that’s what I need to understand
Ellie looked to the others for support “But I—”
Lyra cut in, saying, “It is true that the runes provide the shape of the spell, but it is thethat allows the, you still know about this spell Whether you can provide enough context into your understanding for Regent Leywin to share your insight, I can’t say”
“Iweakly and hanging her bow over her shoulder “So, um, where do we start?”
Ellie sat in the center of the platforently orbited her, each gloith soft white light
I was pacing slowly around her in the opposite direction of the sphere'sobt Real purple runes underthe mana particles There was a constant flow of mana from Ellie’s core into her spellform, which then sent a thread of mana out to each of the spheres: the “tether” that Ellie had felt
She wasn’tthe at si her own purified menter But I still didn’t understand what the spellfor her spell without her conscious input—or even understanding—was closer to how an artifact ht work than an actively cast spell
The important part for me, however, hether or not I could si sihter suddenly “What did you just do?” I asked, honing in on the pheno aabout each word “Like when you are trying to relax before hten and release each individual muscle Some of them are hard, because you don’t use the to touch the tether itself, and I think I just did”
“I saw it,” I said,over her explanation
As I paced, I forht of which stained Ellie’s rasp, hovering just a few inches above an to flex and release the various parts of e of the illusion in the third ruin, I needed to bring any unconscious aspects of e into my conscious mind
It was difficult As Grey, I’d learned the internal ly efficient at it Then, as a quadraeleit outward as a spell This had carried over intoinitiated within h a Godrune
But Ellie was an augmenter as well She may have had the benefit of a spellfore the fact that her technique was still possible
I returned my attention to her, the spellform, and the tether ofsphere The key was there I just needed to find it
Mica’s ie in the doorway vanished as Ellie co her aether-imbued mana arrows With one hand, I unleashed an aetheric burst that destroyed three creeping ht a barbed tail that had lashed out at Ellie Before thealready pushed aether into le, near-instant step took ainst a two-faced horror’s skull, crushi+ng it I still had the other monster by the tail, and its momentum carried it into twoaway into the void in a tangle of shattered liht afteriet
Boo was back-to-back with Ellie with three of the misshapen horrors pinned beneath hi and hacking at anything that ca ability, I had been able to visualize so similar, like an invisible third ar e of motion It was imperfect It took very nearly all my focus and I had to be aware of where it was in relation to my allies at all times, my control over it was clumsy at best
Still, after several hours of practice, I had learned hoield the sword from up to twenty feet, which proved especially useful when I was focused on iress to the twelfth platforainst a horde of attackers
Boo roared out a warning as a jagged, spiderish s splayed out as it plummeted toward Ellie
Aether concentrated in h pressure to rip on the aetheric sword, I lifted it above Ellie and slashed with all the grace of a butcher’s cleaver
Ellie dodged away fro onto the platform less than five feet from where she ended up
The aether blade sheared off several limbs with the first strike then split thedown thick black ichor At the same time, I released the aetheric blast that had built up inhorrors before their claws could reach her
Lunging across the platfor tail of another, I headed for the doorway to the next platfor arrows back past me I heard the mana sink into my pursuer’s flesh, and its body clatter to the floor
Ellie conjured two arrows and I hurried to i the hovering blade, hacking apart any enee of the platfor blows to monster after ht next to us Barely an instant later, the second was arcing through the void, aimed at a door almost five hundred feet away
I knew from the relief on Ellie’s tense face that the arrow had hit its mark, and took Ellie by the arainst the door When I channeled aether, she vanished off the platforlossy black panel
Instantly, both arrows detonated as her connection to themy aether into the tether her arrows created, and she vanished again
Boo howled in pain as a headless abomination with deformed lih hide, but there were threethe tethered sword, I reconjured it into uardian bear At the end of the step, I released h Boo’s attacker before dissolving in the void Behind round in pieces
I knehen Ellie had reached the next platform because Boo vanished with a pop, and I wasted no ti the door myself Within it, I could more clearly see the next platfor one of the three that faced back in this direction, I thought aboutto it
I drifted forward, out of the door and into open space It was a familiar sensation by now Little by little, I picked up speed as the void seethed with oozing shadows around e of time between the two platfore of skeletally-thin, humanoid monsters that poured out of the inky black space between platforis blazed with violently purple aetheric flaulf severalhi as ht back-to-back with Ellie in between the up wherever athe tide at bay as Mica’s hammer unleashed cannon-ball sized lumps of stone and Ellie fired arrow after arrow Whenever a creature was able to approach, the oversized haround or a burst of void wind vibrated it apart
The second I arrived on the platforis vanished into the doorway, and I took up his role as defender While the conjured horror’s claeren’t slowed by the aetheric barrier anymy companions, the relic armor deflected all but the most direct blows In concert with ed off a number of strikes that would have killed any of the others
Regis reappeared on the platfor another dead end
‘The exit portal is on the next platfor under the surface of his thoughts
“Hold the line!” I shouted, spinning around slashi+ng claws before driving a blade into the attackers chest “This is it, we’re almost out of here”
Mica let out a victorious battle cry and slaround Stone spikes stabbed up through half a dozensharp shards of rock into as athered a silvery orb ofher er and ht when he arrived on the distant platforer-fever-drea monstrosities’
I refused to allow myself to relax with the end so close A misstep noould be catastrophic “Mica, you’re up!”
A gravity well for severalMica’s way to the portal She wasted no ti the distance, and I instantly sent her into the door Ellie and I hurried to imbue the arrows as Lyra and Boo defended us I supported the at the endless horde
It took almost a full minute for Mica to appear on the far platform, after which Lyra went next To better defend ourselves now that ere down to three, Ellie, Boo, and I uarded Ellie frouarded the other We became a maelstrom of aetheric blasts,back the tide until I counted to sixty into the door We ih
Alone on the platfor with deadly efficiency as I carved through attacker after attacker When the h the door and to beginhts, but I could feel it pushi+ng in like the leading edge of a storo all out…” Ellie said as I stepped out of the door aand there were dark bags under her eyes, like she hadn’t slept in days
Wrappingwith h not to protest
I wasn’t entirely sure aited on the other side According tothe final ruin, but I hadn’t interacted with any other zone that took me out of my own body Perhaps ould just wake up, refreshed and ready to go on to the next zone Perhaps not…
Feeling certain that I wouldn’t need the Co anywhere, I reached for the portal
“Wait,” Ellie said, pulling away from me She hesitated as everyone looked in her direction
“What is it?” I asked, searching her eyes
“I know the ruin is ioal, but…” She sed and took a et another opportunity like this” She gestured behind her, into the void “I caer I think we all did It’s like you said, about the aether orb thing…that’s how you trained Well, isn’t this a chance for us to do the saotten better already, and I definitely have” Her eyes drifted back to ress here You learned that flying sword thing so fast”
She took a steadying breath, then continued “I don’t knohat’s going to happen between Dicathen and Alacrya—and even Epheotus—but I know I need to get a lot stronger if I want to be able to protectout to her
She batted ht “I knohat you’re going to say, that you’ll always be there to protect us, but we both know you can’t be You don’t knohere you’ll be dragged off to next But ht and train and even if ‘dying’ here sucks, we just wake back up We should take advantage of it”
She took a deep, steadying breath and looked defiantly into ain”